Going to Rome? Part 2

A few days ago, I passed along some gratuitous tips on traveling to Rome, and today I intend to subject you to a second round of informative tidbits. This time I'll address some of the things you might want to do at the Vatican. In addition to St. Peter's Basilica there are a number of Vatican "must-sees". The below information assumes that you're not traveling as a member of a tour or pilgrimage group; that is, you are traveling as an individual, a couple, or perhaps two couples.

Roman busts in the Vatican Museums

Vatican Museums. First, you'll want to visit the Vatican Museums, among the most remarkable in the world. There are several options. You can stand in line -- often a very long line -- waiting to purchase individual tickets at the door. You can join a commercial tour group and let them arrange for the tickets and guided tour. Or you can do what we do, and purchase your individual tour tickets online in advance. Then, when you arrive prior to the time of your tour, you can skip the line and join the other individuals and couples who will make up your small tour group. A guided tour (about two hours long) is a good idea, especially for your first visit. The tour guide will introduce you to all the "highlights" of the multiple museums, including a visit to the Sistine Chapel. After the tour you can remain in the Museums and visit specific collections that are of particular interest to you. If you plan to spend more than one day at the museums, you can also purchase individual (no tour) entrance tickets online, thus enabling you to skip that long waiting line once again. For example, some folks purchase tour tickets for one day and regular entrance tickets for the next day. All of this can be done online. Go to the Vatican Museums' web page and take your pick of ticket options:

Individual Tour Tickets
or
Individual Entrance Tickets (No tour)

Tickets for the tour of the Museums and Sistine Chapel currently cost 30 Euros. The basic entrance ticket (no tour) runs 18 Euros if purchased online. All tickets can be purchased online as much as 60 days in advance.

Gallery in the Vatican Museums

Some tips on visiting the Vatican Museums:

• Be sure to be on time for your tour. I always try to arrive at least 30 minutes ahead of time.
  
• You're also permitted to take photographs inside the museums, but not in the Sistine Chapel.
• The museums are vast. You would need a week to see everything. To help you select the collections you'd especially like to visit, go to the museums' web site and take their online virtual tours. They're really quite well done. Here's the link: Vatican Museums Virtual Tours.
  
• Don't miss the museums' large gift shop, It's a great place to purchase some unique gifts for those hard to please folks back home.

Vatican Gardens. This is another "must-see." Unless you have a well-placed friend who works in the Vatican, the only way to visit the Vatican Gardens is on a tour. The tours consist of small groups and are led by well-qualified and interesting guides. You'll certainly want to take your camera along. You can purchase your Vatican Garden tour tickets when you purchase your tour tickets for the Vatican Museums. Tickets are 30 Euros and can be purchased online on the following page: Vatican Gardens Tour Tickets.

The dome of St. Peter's Basilica from the Vatican Gardens

St. Peter's Basilica. If you've already checked out the ticket web pages I listed above, you probably noticed that you're given two Vatican Museum tour options. One combines the tour of the museums with the Sistine Chapel and the other combines the museums and St. Peter's. I recommend selecting the Sistine Chapel option. You can enter St. Peter's for free pretty much whenever you like and if you have a good guide book you can conduct a self-guided tour.

St. Peter's Necropolis Excavations. There is, however, one additional must-see tour, the tour of the Necropolis beneath St. Peter's Basilica. Taking this tour is the only way you can actually visit the spot where St. Peter was buried by the early Christians. You must purchase tickets in advance because of the limits on the number of people who can go on this tour each day. Here's the link to the Vatican Excavations Office web page that lists all the information you'll need to arrange for a tour. I'd suggest that you make this tour reservation before all others since the tickets are harder to come by and you might not be able to select the specific day of your tour. Be sure to read the entire page before contacting the Excavations Office. You can request the tickets via the email address listed on the page. As I recall the tickets are only 10 Euros.

If you'd like to get a preview of what your will experience on this tour, you can visit the Vatican's online virtual tour of the excavations. Here's the link: Virtual Excavations Tour. It's pretty neat and I recommend viewing it prior to your trip.

Papal Audience. The Holy Father conducts a Wednesday audience at 10:30 a.m. whenever he's in town, so be sure to set aside a Wednesday morning during your stay. Sometimes the audience is held outside in St. Peter's Square, and sometimes inside in the large audience hall. I'm not really sure what criteria are used to make the inside-outside decision. Once, on a fairly cool day in November, we attended an outside audience. And on our next visit, on a very pleasant September day, the audience was held inside.

The crowd at an outdoor Papal Audience (Nov. 2005)

As a deacon I can usually get the "special" seats for my wife and me. I prefer the outside audience, because these special seats are actually closer to the Holy Father than the inside seats. Also the photographic conditions are better outside. If you have a clergy friend or if you're in tight with your bishop, you might want to pull all those strings so you can get those special tickets. You're not only closer to the Pope, but the line is much shorter.

Pope Benedict XVI: Papal Audience Nov 2005

I have always obtained my tickets via the North American College (NAC), the theological seminary in Rome for Americans studying for the priesthood. Here is a link to their page describing how to obtain tickets to a papal audience: North American College. You can request your tickets via email (visitorsoffice@pnac.org) or call the NAC at the number listed on the web page. One important point: The NAC does not deliver or mail tickets. You must pick them up at the NAC the day before the audience between 3 and 7 p.m. The address (including a map) is listed on their website.

Masses. With so many basilicas and churches, you have lots of choices of where to attend Mass. I recommend you choose a different church each day and time your visits accordingly. Here's a link to a site providing the Mass times for many of Rome's leading churches: Mass Times.

That's enough for now. Next time I'll branch out and address some of the other places you might want to visit while in Rome.

New Video - Catholic Vote

CatholicVote.org has released a new TV ad. Very timely...

Hide those disabilities

This morning I came across a comment by Allahpundit, the anonymous blogger who now blogs on Michelle Malkin's hotair.com. He addresses one of the reasons that Sarah Palin is so despised by so many: she doesn't hide her disabled baby, the kind of child that should have been aborted. By showing us her child, by loving her child, Governor Palin forces us to recognize the humanity of those we murder every day. Here's the entire comment:
_______________

“Palin is controversial, in part, because America is divided over disability. We’ve established laws and institutions that protect people with disabilities. But we also do everything we can to make sure they don’t see the light of day.

Trig is a reminder of our fierce ambivalence over disability. Every mention of his name is a pinprick to our conscience. Every photo of mother and son is a reminder of concepts — vulnerability, dependency and suffering — our culture no longer tolerates, as well as virtues, such as humility, dignity and self-sacrifice, it no longer extols.

Trig is also a reminder of an inescapable truth: Disability is an inherent part of the human condition. At a time of deep cultural divisions, 1-year-old Trig Palin represents the deepest division of all, between a culture that increasingly sees genetic perfection as an entitlement and a culture still rooted in the belief that human beings are defined not by their capabilities but, instead, by the very fact of their humanity.”

_______________

God help us.

For more on this, click here.

Off to Rome??

Uh-oh. It's been only 10 months since our last visit to Rome, but Diane and I are once again itching to return. We've made a number of visits during the past decade and, God willing, will make many more in the years to come.

I'm unable to articulate fully why Rome holds such an attraction for us. Because we seem to like everything about the city, it's hard to know where to begin. There's so much to like: the Vatican; the basilicas and churches; the opportunity to stroll through the remains of ancient Rome; the food, the wine, the noise, the people...We like it all.

Dome of St. Peter's from the Vatican Gardens.

If you've never been to Rome, you should definitely put it at the top of your "bucket list." And don't be put off by what you may have heard about the high prices and crowds. A little planning and online research can go a long way toward making your trip both affordable and enjoyable. I hope the following tips will help you plan a truly unforgettable trip.

1. How long? Unless you expect to make more than one trip, plan to spend at least a week in Rome -- ten days is even better. There's so much to see and too often visitors try to pack too much into each day. "Overbooking" your time will only make for a stressful vacation and deprive you of one of the joys of a visit to Rome: learning to ease into the pace of the city and its people. Take some time and make it a true vacation during which you will come to know and love the city and its people. One of my desires is to find the wherewithal to rent an apartment and spend a full month in Rome. Maybe...we'll see.

2. When to visit? For me, the best time of year to visit Rome is in the spring or fall. Late September and October or April and early May usually offer fairly nice weather. Just be sure to plan far enough ahead so you can book reservations at the hotel of your choice. These can be popular times. The winter months -- from November through March -- tend to be colder and rainy, although we once visited in November and were blessed with fairly comfortable weather. Summers can be hot and during August much of Rome shuts down as the Romans go on vacation elsewhere. Summer is also the season for lots of open-air shows and festivals of all sorts. For what it's worth, my next trip will probably be in mid-September or April.

3. Booking Flights. I usually book our flight first, before making hotel or other reservations. Deals on airfares are definitely out there these days. You can purchase a round-trip ticket to Rome for $700 or less...often a lot less. And this is from Orlando! If you're flying out of New York or some other major international airports on the east coast, you'll find much cheaper flights. If, like us, you're retired and have the ability to travel at off-peak times or on relatively short notice, you can travel even less expensively. Here are some suggestions:

The Colosseum

• Check lots of different travel websites before booking your flights. Memberships to these sites -- Orbitz, Travelocity, Expedia, Cheap Flights, etc. -- is free and can sometimes save you big bucks.
• Be sure to check out the individual airline sites as well. They sometimes have limited time offers you won't find elsewhere. For example, on our last trip we flew via British Air, thanks to an email they sent me advertising a limited time offer (48 hours!) for 1/2 price tickets to Rome. The flight, from Orlando to Rome, included a plane change at Gatwick (London). Most airlines also offer package deals that include your hotel stay. If you're considering one of these deals, just be sure that the hotel meets your needs. (See below.)
• If you have the time and don't mind changing planes a couple of times, you can often get remarkably low-cost seats. On one trip, we flew to Rome from Orlando via New York and Paris, changing planes at each stop. It was a bit tiring but it sure saved us a bundle. We probably won't do that again though. Our aging bodies have asked us to limit future trips to one plane change.

A wall in the Trastevere district of Rome

4. Check out the Package Deals. This leads me to another suggestion. In addition to the packages offered by airlines (addressed above), there are travel firms that specialize in putting together low-cost packages that include airfare, hotels, airport transfers, side trips -- pretty much whatever you want. Back in 2005 Diane and I used one of these firms -- go-today.com -- for a trip that included Rome and Venice. The package advertised three days in each city, but we extended each stay by several days. They offered a range of five hotel selections from basic tourist class up to a deluxe luxury hotel. Since the hotels were named, I was able to visit each hotel's website and get a better sense of the accommodations and services offered. We ended up choosing a mid-range hotel in each city and were extremely happy with the result. The folks at go-today also reserved airport transfers for us, upgraded to first class our train trip from Rome to Venice, and arranged a one-day side trip to Orvieto during our stay in Rome. Everything went smoothly and we had no complaints whatsoever.

San Angelo Bridge

5. Choosing a Hotel. I hate to recommend specific hotels because everyone's tastes and budgets vary...so I won't. I will, however, offer some suggestions that might help you choose the best hotel for you.

• For me the most important consideration is location. I want a hotel where I can walk to many of the places I intend to visit. If I plan to spend a lot of time at the Vatican, then I want a hotel nearby. If I intend to spend most of my time in the historic center of the city, then that's where I'll want to stay. On our last visit, we split the difference and chose a small hotel in the Prati district located about a third of the way between the Vatican and Piazza Navona. It turned out to be a good choice.
  
• Once you've narrowed down the general location, you can go to websites such as hotels.com or bookings.com and search for hotels during the time of your trip. These and similar sites allow you to narrow down the search based on such factors as location in the city, price, services offered, customer ratings, etc.
  
• Keep in mind that you probably won't spend much time in your hotel room. You can spend a lot of money on luxuries you will never or rarely use. When in Rome the main thing I'm looking for in a hotel is a good night's sleep.
  
• After location, my selection criteria include: no noise at night; a comfortable bed; an adequate breakfast; and free Internet access for the little netbook I take with me. You will probably have other criteria, but the important thing is to consider them before booking your room. Check out the customer reviews and see what others have experienced. And be sure to visit the websites of all the hotels you are considering. If you have questions don't hesitate to email the hotel directly. Prior to our last trip, I developed quite an email relationship with the manager of the hotel where we ultimately stayed. I was always pleasant and respectful and never neglected to thank him for taking the time to answer my questions. As a result he upgraded us to a larger room the day after our arrival. I also gave them a wonderful review on the website we used to book the hotel. I expect they'll remember us should we choose to stay there again. Being nice always pays off.
  
• Unless you're wealthy (I'm not), price is always a factor. Don't necessarily accept the price listed on the hotel search website. Visit the hotel's site as well and see if they have any special deals during the time of your visit. It also doesn't hurt to email or call the hotel directly and see if you can negotiate a better price.
• My only negative suggestion regarding hotels is to avoid the area near the Rome train station (Stazione Termini). The negatives? It isn't the best neighborhood, although recent reports indicate that the police have cut the crime rate substantially and many people now consider it a fairly safe area. It's also a noisy area because of the traffic and the nighttime activity. The positives? There are some nice hotels with very reasonable rates. You also have ready access to public transportation that can take you anywhere in Rome and beyond.
  

(By the way, I took the above photo of Pope Benedict XVI during a Wednesday general audience in November 2005. It is possible to get a seat close to His Holiness.)

That's all for now. In my next post I'll pass along suggestions on what to see and do while in Rome and how to obtain tickets to some of the real neat stuff like papal audiences and tours of the excavations under St. Peter's Basilica.

Blessings...

Economics 101 - Soup Kitchen Version

I'm no economist, although I did shuffle my way through a few graduate courses in economics way back when. Indeed, my only vivid memory of any of those economics classes was the day my macroeconomics professor stated that the government should encourage high trade deficits. In his words, "Those other countries give us all those cool Toyotas, and Sony TVs, and BMWs, and Italian suits, and we give them worthless paper (i.e., dollars) in return. Sounds like a good deal to me." I'm still trying to figure out whether he was right or not; although, right or worng, I suppose he's very pleased these days.

Anyway, as you might guess, when I want to get a sense for how the economy's doing, you won't see me pulling out the demand curves or Laffer curves or statistics on personal income and outlays or any other kind of curves or traditional economic indicators. No, I have far more personal and, I believe, reliable data upon which to draw my conclusions. I use two metrics. First, I just count the number of meals we're currently serving at the soup kitchen and compare the total to the totals of previous months and years. And then I compare how tired I am and how many muscles ache at the end of a six-hour soup kitchen shift compared to the previous week.

Now I realize that my indicators don't sound very scientific, compared to those used by economists, but we all know that the intelligence of most economists is highly overrated. Since they never agree with each other, I don't see how all of them can be smart. And so I figure any conclusions I come up with are likely just as valid as theirs.

Now to the nitty-gritty. What's been happening at the Wildwood Soup Kitchen? Exactly the opposite of what I'd like to see. The demand for meals has been increasing, and at a steep rate. It wasn't long ago when 200 meals was a very busy day. Now we're regularly preparing 250 or more meals daily. Last Thursday we served and delivered 254 meals (a record for our Thursday team), and today the total was 250. On some other days this week the totals exceeded 260. These are very large numbers for us. But that's not all. Reinforcing what these numbers seem to represent, is the pain I am currently experiencing. My back and legs muscles, the associated tendons and bones, even my skin, are all aching at unprecedented levels. My day at the soup kitchen, you see, interrupts the calm of my sedentary life and forces me to use body parts that are normally protected from such abuse. Usually the two aspirins I take each Thursday at 1 p.m. do the trick. But not today, and not last week.

And so, after bending my extraordinarily non-scientific mind to focus on these numbers and my aching, aged muscles, I have concluded that the economy is going down the toilet. I really don't think any of those hundreds of billions in stimulus dollars have made their way to Wildwood, Florida; and I suspect they never will. The poor in our area, particularly the working poor, seem to be losing ground and I fear the numbers and my pains will only increase.

Of course, the Wildwood Soup Kitchen doesn't rely on government at any level for anything. We can continue to feed the hungry only because of the generosity of individuals, churches, local businesses, community groups, and service organizations who provide us with the money and the food to do God's work in our community. How fortunate we are to have such generous donors, along with a corps of approximately 150 self-sacrificing volunteers, an ecumenical group from nearly 30 local churches. Last year we served over 62,000 meals and this year we will surely exceed that figure.

As President of our Board of Directors my primary task is to raise money; and so if you happen to experience a sudden urge to donate, you can go directly to our website and donate via PayPal, or you can send a check to our P.O. Box address listed on the website. Every penny counts. And because we have NO paid staff, you can be sure that every one of those pennies will go directly to the work of our ministry.

http://www.wildwoodsoupkitchen.com

Blessings...

Caritas in veritate (Charity in truth)

The Vatican published Pope Benedict's latest encyclical, Caritas in veritate, on July 7. I read it through once, but will have to read it again more slowly so I can digest and better understand some of the Holy Father's thoughts on the Church's social teaching. The encyclical is available online at the Vatican's website. The Pope also spoke about it at his most recent audience, so if you want a very brief synopsis, you can read those comments. Finally, a number of people have already published (online) brief overviews or summaries of the encyclical. The one I found most helpful is by Dr. Jeff Mirus and available on catholicculture.org. Here are links to all three:

Entire Encyclical Caritas in veritate: Vatican website

Pope's comments at July 8 audience: General Audience

Dr. Jeff Mirus - Summary: Catholic Culture

Enjoy...

Healing Mass Homily

Yesterday at noon our parish, St. Vincent de Paul Parish in Wildwood, Florida, celebrated a healing Mass that brought in over 500 people. Here's a link to an article that appeared in our local newspaper, The Villages Daily Sun, on Friday, the day prior to the Mass.

Several weeks ago, when I was asked to preach at the Mass, I was told that the participants would expect a long homily, up to 30 minutes. My initial response was, "Aren't they Catholic?" But then it was explained to me that the Mass was sponsored by our local charismatic prayer group, and that they had invited folks from neighboring parishes and even some nearby Protestant churches. So I compromised and prepared a 20-minute homily, hoping the non-charismatic Catholics wouldn't get too antsy and the charismatics wouldn't feel cheated. My homily follows...

____________________

I’m going to begin by sharing a couple of truths with you.

First of all, everyone needs healing. That’s right…everyone. Some of us might have a need for physical healing, but all of us, every single one of us, has a need for spiritual healing. We’re not all physically ill, but we are all sinners.

And I suppose, if you think about it, this very fact means that this church should be overflowing with people today. It should be standing room only at St. Vincent de Paul. And surprise, surprise…it is. Praise God!

And this brings up the second truth I’d like to share with you. Each of us, at one time or another, experiences fear.

Now fear can come in many different guises. Fear will even keep some folks from a healing Mass. Like the apostle Thomas, they will allow doubts and a lack of faith to separate themselves from the Church at a time when they most need the prayers of the Church. They want reassurances and proof that they aren’t being foolish by believing something that by its very nature can’t be proven.

Of course it’s normal to struggle with doubt and with the subtle, and sometimes not so subtle, fears that accompany it. That’s right, doubt and fear are normal. And Thomas wasn’t the only Apostle to experience them.

While Thomas doubted, the rest of the Apostles feared. Their fear was so great after Jesus’ death, their faith so weak, that they locked themselves in the upper room. Fear like that can sometimes be paralyzing. It can drive us away from others, from those who presence we often need the most.

Back in 2001 I was asked by a parishioner to bless their home. The date was September 11 and I planned to stop by that evening. When I arrived, Ed and his extended family, his children and grandchildren, were all sitting in the family room watching TV, trying to understand what had happened in NY and Washington on that horrible day.

I asked Ed if he’d rather I return some other day, but he said, “No. I think a blessing might be just what we need.” He turned off the TV and asked me to join him and his family in prayer for our nation. And so we did.

Everyone joined in prayer except Peg, his wife. Later, as I was blessing their home, I entered the kitchen and saw her sitting alone at the table. She was shaking, shaking so much she was unable to pick up the cup of tea in front of her.

The events of that day had so terrified her that she refused even to speak to me. Ed later told me it was nearly two weeks before she would even step outside her home...so great was her fear. And once again I thought of Thomas.

Following Jesus’ death, Thomas, for some reason separated himself from the Apostles. The others had managed to stay together, loyal but fearful. And it was to them that Jesus appeared.

We, too, can make that mistake. When sorrow comes to us, when sadness overwhelms us, when illness allows fear to envelop us, we can shut ourselves away from others. This only deprives us of a basic resource of our faith: the support and love and prayers of our brothers and sisters in Christ.

We all experiences times of discouragement, times when God seems so very far away, times when it’s hard, so very hard, to hold onto God with our own strength. It’s precisely at these times when we need each other’s presence and strength. This is what Thomas discovered. Disillusioned by the death of His Lord, he had lost his grip on his faith. Like Peg sitting alone in the kitchen, with fear as her only companion, when Thomas was by himself his faith only weakened. When he separated himself from the prayer of the Church, Thomas couldn’t believe.

He might not have believed what the others had told him, but out of loneliness if nothing else, he rejoined the tiny community. And it was in that community that Christ once again became real to him. Peg, too, rejoined her family and her faith community. Indeed, a few weeks later at a special Mass for the parish prayer group, she received the graces that dispelled her fears.

And this is an important point. Some things can happen to us within the fellowship of the church that won’t happen when we’re alone. It’s by coming together that we can dispel our fears, the fears that come with illness, the fears that accompany anxiety, depression and emotional upheaval.

This is why we celebrate healing Masses such as this, to celebrate the fact that we are all together in this quest for wholeness and healing. And to take advantage of Christ’s healing presence in the Eucharist. In one respect, then, every Mass is a healing Mass. And when you receive the Blessed Sacrament, you should expect miracles, miracles of grace. Jesus always answers your prayer — not always the way you want, but when you come to Him in faith, and not in fear, you won’t be disappointed.

In today’s Gospel reading Jesus tells the disciples not to be afraid. Indeed, three times in this passage, Jesus tells them not to be afraid. “Be not afraid.” It’s a constant theme running throughout the Gospels. Yes, fear of the Lord is one of the gifts of the Holy Spirit; but this fear is rather a feeling of awe and reverence before the ultimate mystery that is God. Over and over again Jesus said, “Don't be afraid!” And St John wrote, “Perfect love casts out fear.”

God wants our love, not our fear. You see, Jesus knows what fear can do to us. And He offers the only antidote to fear as a gift, the gift of faith. It’s a gift freely given. We need only ask for it. We need only turn to God in prayer, with the humility and trust of a child, and this wonderful, life-altering gift is ours.

And this brings up another point. If you have come to this Mass strictly to receive a healing, then in all likelihood nothing will happen. To my knowledge there’s no one here blessed with an extraordinary gift of healing.

But if you have come to pray, if you have come to open yourself up to God’s Word and God’s love, then you can expect great things to happen. Brothers and sisters, when we pray the prayer of the Church, Christ’s holy and redeeming sacrifice of the Mass, when we come together in thanksgiving to celebrate the Eucharist, Christ is present.

Oh, how He is present!

Just as He was on the Cross, as He too uttered those all too human words, “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” Just as He was when the Risen Christ entered that upper room and was greeted by Thomas with those faith-filled words, “My Lord and my God.” And when Christ is present, His love is present. And when His love is present, healing takes place.

If we didn’t believe that, there’d be little reason for us to come together today. You see, it’s Our Lord’s deep compassionate and unconditional love that heals us.

But before I wander too far afield, let me return to those two truths: healing and fear.

These are Gospel truths, you know. They’re Gospel truths because they are such an integral part of the Gospel.

Jesus did a lot of things during His public ministry. He preached, He taught, He listened, He warned, He prophesied…but the one thing He did everywhere He went was heal…and He told us not to fear.

He calls us to do the same. That’s right; we are to take part in Jesus’ healing ministry by bringing others to Him.

Remember the healing of the paralytic, an event described by Matthew, Mark and Luke? The paralytic – lowered through the roof – by his friends who, despite all obstacles, find a way to carry him to Jesus. Note the great faith, the hope in Christ expressed by those who carry this man to Jesus: the Gospel text is explicit about Jesus noticing their faith and responding to it.

And note, too, the triple miracle that occurred that day in Capernaum. First, Jesus read the minds of those who were murmuring against him, who were accusing Him of blasphemy. And, of course, there was the physical healing of the paralytic, the one miracle, the obvious one that all present could see. And it was through this physical healing that Jesus proved and demonstrated His divine power, that he had the power to perform the greatest miracle of that day, to heal the soul, to offer spiritual healing through the forgiveness of sins.

You see, physical healing by God is never an end in itself. It always aims at something else, something much greater: the soul’s spiritual healing – to remove our fears, to continue the lifelong conversion that our faith demands of us.

And so, why are you here today? Are you here only for physical healing? Or are you here to experience Christ’s redemptive work of healing and salvation?

I can recall the first healing Mass I ever attended. Father Gabriel looked at us told us gently that Jesus wants to heal the whole man, the whole woman. “Any healing today,” he said, “won’t come because of me, or because of any of us present here today. Only One Presence can heal us. For only God is love; and only God’s love can heal.”

He then lifted a cross and held it up for all to see and asked the congregation: Did your mother die for you? Did your father die for you? Your husband? Your wife? Your best friend? No, only Jesus died for you. And only God loves you with the love that can heal. Any healing you receive today, any healing whether of body or soul, is through Jesus Christ and the power of His Holy Spirit.”

Jesus on the Cross is God with skin on, a personal, relational God. And He tells us that God not only knows everything about us, but actually cares about us. He’s God up close and personal and touching. He lives in our world…speaking...guiding...healing… walking with us...eating, drinking, crying. A God who is compassionate, caring and loving. A God who is willing to go to the cross for us.

Father Gabriel then added, “For those who do not receive a physical healing, it’s not that you don’t have faith – no, not at all. You see,” he explained, “within God’s providence suffering is allowed.”

Yes, brothers and sisters, we need only look at our risen Lord and the wounds Thomas asked to touch. We don’t think about this too often, the fact that the Lord took his wounds with him to eternity. He is a wounded God, sharing in our infirmities, carrying our brokenness with Him. He let himself be injured through his love for us. His wounds are a sign for us that he understands and allows himself to be wounded out of love for us. These wounds of his: how real they are to us today.

Indeed, time and again, the Lord allows Himself to be wounded for our sake. Yes, Jesus continues to share in the sufferings of the world. What a gift those wounds are! What a consolation! It is through those eternal wounds that we can come to experience the certainty of His mercy. It is those wounds that remove the doubts and fears, just as they did for Thomas as he fell to his knees and uttered, "My Lord and my God!

What a duty they are for us, the duty to allow ourselves in turn to be wounded for him! For this is the first purpose of Sacrament of Healing: to allow us to join our sufferings to those of Christ on the Cross. This very act on our part makes our sufferings redemptive.

And, yes, we are all in need of healing. And so this sacrament, through the power of the Holy Spirit, sometimes leads to physical healing…but it always leads to spiritual healing.

You are here today to pray together, to be anointed, to receive the healing power of the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of the Father and the Son. So you can leave this church today knowing that you have work to do, the work of the Holy Spirit. For that, too, is a duty that comes with our faith.

Yes, it’s easy to say, “Jesus I love you.” But Jesus says in reply, “Show me.”

Like the men who carried the paralytic to Jesus, do I want to help others experience Jesus’ healing touch? Do I appreciate enough those who try to carry me to Jesus, those who love me? Do I realize that I’m capable of doing the work of Jesus Christ – that through the power of prayer I can bring God’s healing power to the world? Is there enough wonder in me to accept that God, by healing my spirit, by creating in me a new heart – that by doing this He is doing something greater than creating the material world?

Yes, we have a lot of work to do today. For we are all here not just to be healed, but also to carry God’s healing power to others.

God love you, and bless you, and heal you...

Historicity of the Old Testament

All those "scholars" who for years have dismissed the Old Testament's historicity have been getting hammered again and again as archaeological and other evidence confirms the accuracy of the Bible as a historical document.

One must understand that the goal of many of these scholars has never really been scholarship and truth; rather, it has been to undermine belief in the Bible and, consequently, the faith of Christians and Jews. You might think this a rather strident opinion, but the evidence is clear. For example, based on their writings many critical-historical scholars believe that there really was no historical David, certainly not as he is depicted in the Old Testament. And yet just consider the amount of documentation on David's life included in Scripture. For any non-Biblical ancient personality, this amount of documentation would be considered an historical treasure trove, especially when there exist snippets of corroborating references in other ancient documents. But not when it comes to David -- or, for that matter, Abraham or Moses -- because he was a religious figure, a person important to the faith of today's Christians and Jews. These same scholars would not even think to question the existence of some obscure potentate whose name might appear only in one or two vague references.

I bring this up because of something I recently came across -- a reference to a find in 2007 that I expect didn't make headlines in the US mainstream media. A researcher in the British Museum, while going through some of the thousands of cuneiform tablets kept in the Museum discovered the name of a minor Assyrian official who worked under King Nebuchadnezzar II. This same official is also mentioned in chapter 39 of the Book of Jeremiah. This corroboration of the existence of such a minor official who is mentioned in the Bible only lends credence to the historical accuracy of the Old Testament. For more information, read the article describing the find in the Telegraph.

A wonderful book on the subject of the Old Testament and its validity as a historical document was written recently by K. A. Kitchen, one of the world's foremost scholars on ancient Egypt and the Near East: On the Reliability of the Old Testament, Eerdmans (2003).

How good of God to bless us with the knowledge and ability to uncover these little pieces of history that increasingly prove to us the truth that is His Word.

Summer Reading Lists

OK, we're well into the summer and any summer reading list should probably have been posted back in May. My only excuse is that I live in Florida where it's summer most of the year and any attempt to define the start of the season just doesn't make a lot of sense. So without apology I offer my list now while there's still time to make it to the beach before you northerners experience the first snowfall.

Atheist Delusions by David Bentley Hart (Yale University Press, 2009). A wonderful book by a very smart man. He addresses the place of Christianity in transforming the ancient world and the potential repercussions of the present day neglect of Christianity's spiritual and moral values. Dr. Hart is currently a visiting professor in Theology at Providence College and the author of another wonderful book, The Beauty of the Infinite.

Latro in the Mist (Orb Books, 2003) and Soldier of Sidon (Tor Books, 2007) by Gene Wolfe. These two books (actually three since Latro in the Mist combines the two early novels of the series) will hold you spellbound. Written by Gene Wolfe, the undisputed (at least in my mind) best science fiction writer alive today, they tell the story of Latro, a Roman mercenary who roams through the pre-Christian ancient world experiencing rather marvelous things. Extremely well written and real pages-turners.

Letters from Lake Como (Eerdmans, 1994) and The End of the Modern World (Intercollegiate Studies Institute, 2001) by Romano Guardini. Although these two books by this late great 20th century theologian were written 30 years apart, I include them together because they should really be read consecutively. These prophetic works describe Guardini's vision of a future (actually today's present) in which secularism and Christianity battle for the soul of man.

The Spirit of Early Christian Thought by Robert Louis Wilken (Yale University Press, 2005). A well written and informative book by this distinguished scholar of early Church history. A terrific read that offers excellent insights into the thinking of the early Church Fathers.

Chesterton and the Romance of Orthodoxy by William Oddie (Oxford University Press,2009). Another wonderful biography of G. K. Chesterton, the great Catholic apologist and writer on all subjects. Chesterton is the only author I know who could write about absolutely anything and make it interesting to the reader. The reason is that everything interested Chesterton, and all good things delighted him. Oddie's biography covers only the first 32 years of Chesterton's life (1874-1908), but these were the years of his intellectual and spiritual formation. If you're a Chesterton fan, you'll love this book. If you're not a Chesterton fan, read this book and you will be.

Pride and Prejudice (Ignatius Critical Edition) by Jane Austen (Ignatius Press, 2007). This edition of (in my opinion) the best novel by the greatest woman novelist who ever lived also includes a number of excellent critical essays by some of today's most insightful Austen scholars. I read this book at least once yearly, a habit I highly recommend. You might as well begin during the summer months.

These should keep you busy. Should you, however, decide that my selections are not your cup of tea, here's a collection of summer reading lists that should give you plenty of alternative choices: Click here.

Enjoy the summer, except you folks in the Northeast who I understand will not have a summer this year.

Blessings...

The President Strikes Again...At Life

In case you missed it, President Obama made some interesting comments during his Town Meeting last week. One, in particular, struck me since it gives us a preview of how an Obama-inspired government-run health care system would likely decide about life and death issues.

While discussing possible ways to limit health care costs, the president suggested we stop giving dying people expensive treatments that will probably not extend their lives. His actual words were that families should be discouraged from approving "additional tests or additional drugs that the evidence shows is not necessarily going to improve care." He then went on to say, "Maybe you're better off not having the surgery, but taking the painkiller." After all, it would be so less expensive and, anyway, most of those really sick people are old, too old to contribute much to society. And think of the money we'll save on their social security.

Don't you just love the compassion that oozes out of the pores of liberals? Of course there's something else wrong with his comments. Under a government health care system it won't be the families who will make such decisions; and it won't even be the attending physician. No, based on similar systems in other countries, and on what the president has already suggested, decisions about what tests or drugs or procedures to offer will be made by bureaucrats in Washington.

And, as Jonathan Goldberg has already noted, the president's desire to limit a person's freedom to choose when it comes to health care is strangely at odds with his oft-stated belief that a woman has an inviolate freedom to choose when it comes to aborting her child.

To read the full LA Times story, click here.

"The Family" -- 21st Century Gnostics

The recent troubles that South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford has brought on himself have also given us a glimpse into the religious group to which the beleaguered governor belongs. This organization, which goes by a variety of names, is most often known as The Family and includes among its membership quite a few prominent politicians, including Governor Sanford. Often labeled a Christian, fundamentalist group with conservative political leanings, it's really something quite different. When one takes even a superficial look at the "theology" of the group it's evident that the New Testament isn't its primary source. Indeed, their beliefs are far from Christian and are really just a modern version of first century gnosticism.

According to Jeff Sharlet, who has written an expose-type book on The Family, they preach "a sort of trickle-down fundamentalism," believing that the wealthy and powerful, once they "get their hearts right with God...will dispense blessings to those underneath them." They believe that the elite win power by the will of God, who then uses them for his purposes. The Family's mission is to help the powerful understand their role in God's plan.

This idea that an elite, a privileged few in the know, have a direct connection with God is pretty much what the early gnostics believed. That 2,000 year-old predecessor to The Family blended those elements of Christianity that were acceptable to them with elements of some of the Eastern mystery religions so popular in the Roman Empire at the time. Gnosticism was a heresy then and it remains a heresy today.

The Family is certainly not Christian, since Jesus' teachings, except in the most distorted way, are conspicuously absent from its teachings. It is hardly conservative, at least in any traditional sense, because it places so little value on the individual citizen, focusing instead on a powerful elite. And I think most objective observers would agree that Secretary of State Hilary Clinton is not a conservative. And yet, in speaking of The Family's current leader, Doug Coe, Secretary Clinton called him "a unique presence in Washington: a genuinely loving spiritual mentor and guide to anyone, regardless of party or faith, who wants to deepen his or her relationship with God." Ms. Clinton wasn't just being polite for she is reportedly active in Bible-study and prayer groups conducted under The Family's auspices.

Such gnostic-based religious groups, and The Family is no exception, tend to be founded by those convinced of their own genius, certain that they, and they alone, receive privileged communications straight from God. They appeal to those with wealth and power, promising more of the same. Or they target those seeking wealth and power, promising their attainment. There's an evident arrogance to all this, an arrogance which I suspect "trickles down" and contaminates the members of The Family. It's the same kind of arrogance we have heard from Governor Sanford since he was caught, at least figuratively, with his pants down.

What I find especially interesting is that so little has changed in 2,000 years. We still try to create gods in our image, gods who will approve of and encourage our all too human failings. Ah, well, perhaps the governor will cast aside his arrogance, turn back to the One God and repent. Perhaps he will realize that The Family's false teachings lead only to a conceit unworthy of a child of God. Sadly, however, out of habit he will probably turn to The Family for counsel and guidance.

Pray for him, and for all who fall under the sway of the false teachers Jesus warned us about.

God's peace...

A Few Tidbits

Just some interesting news I spotted while browsing the web this morning...

Pope Benedict's third encyclical to be released on July 7. The Vatican made it official: the Holy Father's latest encyclical, "Caritas in veritate," will be released on Tuesday. More info here,

Cardinal Newman, the great English prelate, on road to sainthood. Pope Benedict has promulgated a decree which attributes a miracle to Servant of God John Henry Newman (1801-1890), English cardinal and founder of the Oratories of St. Philip Neri in England. This is wonderful news for those of us who have been praying for for the cardinal's canonization. Cardinal Newman was a prolific writer and much of his work is accessible online. If you're interested in reading him, try this site: http://www.newmanreader.org.

More on St. Paul's Remains. Not long ago I posted information on the archaeological work done at the Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls and the Holy Father's announcement that the Apostle's remains had likely been found. Well, a few days ago, Vatican officials held a press conference on the subject at which they confirmed that while the remains cannot be definitively be identified as St. Paul's, the findings have certainly increased the likelihood that they are. To visit the Basilica's website and learn more about St. Paul's tomb, click here. To read the Vatican's release on the press conference, click here.

President Obama promises conscience protection. At a meeting with members of the Catholic press, the president stated that he supports a robust conscience clause in any abortion-related legislation. "I can assure all of your readers that when this review is complete there will be a robust conscience clause in place." the president said. "It may not meet the criteria of every possible critic of our approach, but it certainly will not be weaker than what existed before the changes were made." Hmmm...we shall see. Of course, the best case would be a lack of support by Congress for any legislation that looks to encourage more abortions. And the only way to ensure that happens is to vote for solidly pro life legislators. Read about the president's meeting with the Catholic press here.

President calls for universal access to abortion. One day the president is telling Catholics that "I would be surprised if those who believe abortion should be legal would object to language that says we should try to reduce the circumstances in which women feel compelled to obtain an abortion. If they took that position, I would disagree with them." And the next he's calling for the UN to ensure universal access to abortion and other family planning "services." (Click here for details.) Don't you just love it? Just tell 'em what they want to hear and go on to the next group. In addition to the condemnation that will surely come from the Vatican and, I would hope, from the US Bishops, I suspect that the president will also encounter strong resistance from the Islamic nations. Should be interesting.

That's enough for today. I have some steaks to grill and some adult beverages to prepare.

Once again, Happy Independence Day!

Independence Day

"Being human is wicked cool!"

This memorable phrase was uttered nearly 20 years ago by a young man in a confirmation class I was leading at a parish in Massachusetts. (For those of you from outside New England, for some unknown reason "wicked," when used to modify a word like "cool," acts as a superlative; that is, "real cool.") We had been discussing the ramifications of being created in God's image and likeness when its true meaning suddenly dawned on this ninth grader. He went on to wax eloquently about how neat it was that God had made us to be like Him. This, in turn, led to a class-wide discussion of what it meant to be a created being among other created beings. Eventually, another budding young philosopher said, "We really are special, aren't we? I mean, it's like this super gift." From that remarkably astute observation, we progressed to a discussion on the sacredness of life and our responsibility to respect our own lives and the lives of others. Shortly before the end of that class I polled this group of teenagers on a number of life issues, including abortion. They were unanimously pro-life.
These young people had begun to think about the gift of life, human life, and what our shared humanity means in our relationships with each other and with God -- fitting thoughts for Independence Day. I suppose it's really all about dependence and independence. The independence we celebrate today is an independence from external worldly institutions, the result of a decision made by a people with common values to come together and govern themselves. And although we celebrate our independence from other human institutions, we also celebrate our limited dependence on each other, and our complete dependence on God.

But when those foundational values cease being common values, when too many Americans reject or ignore those values of "life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness," that earthy independence can quickly evaporate. Once we find it more convenient to abdicate than to exercise our sovereignty as a people we run the risk of losing the independence bequeathed to us by the many who sacrificed so much. Let's hope and pray that their sacrifices were not in vain.

Enjoy today. Eat a hot dog. Drink a beer. Watch a parade. Salute the flag. Light a sparkler. Shoot down a North Korean missile. Celebrate our independence and pray for our nation.

Early Morning Thoughts and Remembrances

Here I am again, rising early, long before 6 a.m. and just thinking thoughts as they arrive, most unbidden.

I do not have a particularly well-trained memory. It's not that my memory is bad; I just don't seem to have much control over what I recall and what seems to be irretrievably lost amid the aging gray cells.

For example, I can recall all three stanzas of a poem I learned in Mrs. O'Brien's first grade class almost 60 years ago. It was an odd little piece of doggerel that I won't bore you with, but it has remained fixed in my memory, readily available for instant recall. And yet, I have completely forgotten such things as the emergency procedures for the aircraft I flew during my years as a Navy pilot. Unlike Mrs. O'Brien's poem, I spent many hours diligently memorizing these procedures. My life and the lives of others depended on my ability to recall them under highly stressful conditions. And now, 20 to 30 years later, they're pretty much gone. Oh, I suppose I could recreate some of them based on my knowledge of the aircraft and their systems, but any procedure I developed today would only approximate the original. It would not be the exact, word-for-word procedure I had once planted so firmly in my memory.

To me this is weird. Why can I remember perfectly a meaningless little poem and yet completely forget the emergency procedures that on several occasions saved my life? And then, this morning I found myself recalling little snippets of things I've read over the years. Why these and not others?

My morning train of thought seemed to begin with the recollection of something G. K. Chesterton once wrote: "When people cease to believe in God, they do not believe in nothing; they believe in anything." Why this comment should have popped into my mind I have only the slightest clue. But I wondered if I had recalled the quote correctly, and so took a moment to Google it. Sure enough, it was word-for-word correct.

And, then, a moment later, as I was thinking about this clever Chestertonian comment, T. S. Eliot intruded into my thoughts with one of his comments: "Most of the trouble in the world is caused by people wanting to be important." It too I remembered accurately.

It's odd, isn't it, how our minds work when we don't force thoughts on them. Reviewing my little meditations this morning, I'm fairly certain this train of thought had its source in a reading from St. Cyril of Jerusalem that was included in today's Office of Readings. (Praying the Liturgy of the Hours was my first semi-conscious act this morning.) Anyway, Cyril, writing about sin and faith, apparently sparked a thought or two about those who do not believe, and how easy it is for them to rationalize anything, including even the worst of sins.

Thinking about unbelievers and their rationalizations brought to mind the above Chesterton quote about belief in anything. I can see now why I remembered it; I just don't know how I remembered it, when so much else I've read is seemingly lost forever.

From this my thoughts moved from complete non-believers (atheists) to other, more interesting folks, like apostates, heretics, or run-of-the-mill lukewarm Christians. I suppose these thoughts were encouraged by the work I've done lately on a parish course I'm currently teaching. It's a course on the History of the Catholic Church in which heretics and apostates play a significant role.

Now I've always believed that the root cause of all heresy is egoism, a belief on the part of the heretic that he is holier, smarter, better than the Church. From a Catholic perspective, I think one can say that the heretic places himself on a par with God: "If Jesus Christ can start a Church, why can't I?" Or perhaps he's thinking, "How blessed I am that the Holy Spirit is inspiring me directly now that He's stopped inspiring the Church."

These thoughts, in turn, led me to T. S. Eliot and his pithy comment about people wanting to be important, and how easy it is to fall prey to that very human failing...and how sad this is. We are after all, created in God's image and likeness, and so what is above us but God? The sadness is that we so often place lower things above us, thus lowering ourselves. This brought to mind something else I had read, but in this instance I can recall neither the exact words nor the source. In effect, this unknown person wrote that we are imprisoned by those lower things we cannot give up. I wish I could recall the actual quote and who said it, but this one is, for some strange reason, not so clearly embedded in those brain cells of mine.

Finally, all of this has made me realize how dependent, how un-original most of our thoughts are. Hmmm...who was it who said we are like dwarfs standing on the shoulders of giants? I think it was Newton, but I don't have time to look it up.